Lori Montgomery and Felicia Sonmez describe the failure of Democratic and Republican Senate proposal to extend the payroll tax cut. First, their description of the Democratic proposal to account for the revenue loss:

Democrats proposed a 3.25 percent tax on income over $1 million, which would raise sufficient cash to increase the tax cut to 3.1 percent and expand it to cover employers, as Obama has proposed.

Then their description of the Republican proposal:

Republicans, for their part, offered a simple extension of the existing tax break paired with a proposal to freeze pay for federal employees through 2015, trim 10 percent from the federal workforce and deny certain government benefits to people who earn more than $1 million a year. Those provisions would generate enough savings to pay for the tax cut and reduce deficits over the next decade by more than $110 billion.

I found the contrast interesting, as it speaks to the gut instincts of both parties.